Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1887-07-07

mally on opening; l entered, and found the
fire carefully raked out, and still no matches
1 The thought as to how on earth was to find
! my room in the dark became almost unbear.
able; remembered that IL was an end room.
but as to which of the maze of passages it was
in, and on which side, my mind was an abso-
lutte blank
At length | mustered up courage enough to
begin the ascent of the stairs; they groaned
at each step, so took off my boots. When |
| got Go the top made long pause to consider.
Before me was long passage which GER
tainly remembered; from it branclied several
small passages, one OF which led to NV room.
But which of themi Alas, had no idea, A
happy thought struck me, to toss for it: but
again | was thwarted; in the first place |
should probably miss the coin and awaken
somebody with the noise: III the second place
II did catch 1t, l couldn't see It So that
was no use
desperation came TO the rescue and firmly
made up my mind 10 walk up the middle pas
sage Ind 80, and felt the two end doors with
my finger tips in vain; who can feel painted
numbers listened for the sound of breath
ing, 10 know which t. avoid, but could hear
none but my own. Suddenly. rs often iu
such cases OF extreme despair, the conviction
came strong upon me that it was the left
hand door. The thought, however, of mis-
take proved almost too strong for me:
pictured to myself the inevitable shrek fol-
lowed bN twenty others, the opening or lock
ing OF twenty doors, the awful figure of Miss
Splnney III dressing gown and nightcap
bearing down ON me candle in hand, the
trembling crowd of teachers Blue Ewes
among them9, servants and pupils behind.
myself the detected criminal with boots off,
Nevertheless, clenched my teeth, aud grasp
mg the handle tightly, turned it slowly ami
quietly. There was no sound, and in |
st ole. Ii must be my room But what Is
'aatf A head on the pillow Yes, by all that's
sacred, the wrong room!
How got out Of that room | never knew.
A cold shudder came over Ine when 1 founs
myself outside, and felt more inclined TO r..
main standing IN the passage until dayligit
than to go through any such ordeal again.
But got tired of standing, and calmer re
lection induced me TO try the next passage
With a renewal Of the horrid sensation have
described, l rentured, srd to my unspeak-
able relief found yorii "a the right room at
last. Hastily sprang into bed, but courted
sleep in vain, for my brain was in a wbirl
after the excitement Of the last half hour
In the morning. with shattered nerves. |
came down to breakfast: unfortunately not
t. lie reaSsured at once. Who could be com
Portable with twenty pairs of eyes to put one
out, whose owners thoroughly enjoy the dis
conlfture they effecti Blue Ewes did her best
for me, and saved me from feeling utterly
miserable. A quarter to IL saw the whole
school defile two and two 10 chur,.h. | did
not accompany them: the influence of the
fresh air IN an orchard at the back of the
house seemed more refreshing to my broken
constitution. The m'dday dinner was almost
as bad as the breakfast, the double line of
eyes all down the table were riveted on me,
and consequently mine on my platoon my
plate, save when they strayed to certain rosy
fingers not far of, and upwards to certain
blue eyes of which alone they did not seem
afraid The afternoon brought welcome
change in my relations with the school: we
all adjourned 10 the orchard before men
toned, and there, under the cool sha,ie of AN
apple tree, | examined, each with its charm
ing owner, some twenty albums How fond
they are of albums those delightful girls
of under l.! l asked Blue Ewes to show
NE an album, but she said that pupil teachers
never kept them, which told her WAS a fin
sun, sic utNH talked Instead of
showing me an album, and this was really
pleasanter.
On leaving such good friends next day |
was, rs is only natural, a little depressed; but
my awful adventure of the wrong room still
haunted me, and l felt safe at any rate when
the gate Of Algebra Lodge closed behind our
cab
There was much pleasure as well as pain in
my experience of this unknown world of
girldom, short and slight though that experi-
ence was; bat on looking back have to
thank my stars that things were not worse,
that my departure was easy and digniiisd in
stead of being a midnight scramble.
So ends my 81 y, Us told to my friends a
the smoking roo \. did not confide to them
what will now TO you, my gentle reader.
Two summers later my sister brought home
for the holidays one of her teachers, whom
She described as being lawfully jolly" 1t
was Blue Eyes! One evening | told her the
whole story of my adventure that night
She laughed so much at my misfortunes that
l grew angry and said she had no sympathy.
Then she pouted then kissed her, and then
she promised to marry me when
got mastership or work at the bar This is
why | am working so hard now-Roland
Graeme in Belgravia.